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Friday, March 18, 2016

Markets advance for a fifth consecutive week

Dow went up 117 (near the highs), advancers over decliners 3-2 & NAZ gained 20. The MLP index lost pocket change to the 274s & the REIT index was off 1 to the 225s. Junk bond funds climbed higher & Treasuries also had a good advance. Oil was hit with profit taking (see below) & gold also pulled back after its recent run.

Oil fell from a 3-month high as the $ climbed, curbing investor appetite for commodities. Futures
retreated & losses accelerated after Baker Hughes data showed that
the number of US oil rigs climbed for the first time this year.

West
Texas Intermediate oil capped a 5th weekly gain, the longest run
since May, amid speculation stronger demand & shrinking US shale oil
production will ease a global glut. Rigs targeting oil in US fields rose by 1 to 387 this week. The prior week’s number was the lowest since Dec
2009. US production dropped
10K barrels a day to 9.07M last week. Stockpiles at
Cushing, Oklahoma increased 545K
barrels to a record while nationwide supplies remain at the highest
level in more than 8 decades.

Since Apple, a Dow stock, introduced the first iPhone in 2007, mobile handsets
have only gotten bigger. CEO Tim Cook will buck
that trend on Mon when he presents a smaller iPhone, seeking to
entice holdouts to upgrade to a new smartphone even if they don’t want a
larger device. The ambitions for the new phone may be
commensurate to its diminutive size. Unlike previous new iterations of
the device, the 4" iPhone won't be packed full of technological
innovations. Instead, it’s meant to woo those
still clinging to the more than 2-year-old 5S or 5C, the last models
with the more compact screen. The company is rolling out the new phone 2 months after saying quarterly sales were likely to decline for the first time in more than a decade, highlighting concern that
iPhone growth has reached its limits. AAPL sold more than
231M iPhones in 2015, with sales dipping between Apr &
Sep, as has been the case in previous years.

Cook will wield a new
iPad the event as well, details about which are scant. The
tablet has endured its own revenue drop as users have been happy to
retain older models as their phones perform more of the same functions. The stock slid back pennies. If you would like to learn more about AAPL, click on this link:club.ino.com/trend/analysis/stock/AAPL?a_aid=CD3289&a_bid=6ae5b6f7

Apple (AAPL)

Tiffany reported fiscal Q4 earnings of $163M. The had EPS of $1.28 & EPS, adjusted for asset impairment costs & non-recurring
costs, came to $1.46. The results exceeded expectations. The
estimate was for EPS of $1.40. The luxury jeweler posted revenue of $1.21B, which met forecasts. For the year, the company reported EPS of $3.59 & revenue was $4.1B. The stock went up 2.06. If you would like to learn more about TIF, click on this link:club.ino.com/trend/analysis/stock/TIF?a_aid=CD3289&a_bid=6ae5b6f7

Tiffany (TIF)

Stocks had another good week with the Dow gaining 400 & closing at the high. But this aggravates the overbought condition with earnings season just a few weeks away. And many forecasts have been lowered for Q1.